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Vista Laptop Dual Screens

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Hi all,

I havent posted for a while but i wonder if any of you guys could help me out please.

I have a laptop running Vista ultimate and had it set up in a dual screen config with the internal display as the primery display. was all running smoothley untill one day half closed the lid to plug in my printer to the back usb port big mistake. as when i moved the display to the near closed positon it touched that little switch that turns off the internal display when you close the lid.

this has made my external display teh primary now and its very annoying,

i have tryed all the usual stuff like rebooting with the external display unplugged and then plug it back in sitll comes up as the "primary display"

i have unisntalled the moniter dirvers and rebooted with it unplugged then plugged back in and reconfigured no luck

then i delved into the registry.

i removed a couple of reg keys hopeing this will fix it
the key was

HKCC\System\CurrentControlSet\Video\AdapterGUID ( this recreates on boot)

this didnt work

so i went to
HKLM\System\CurentControlSet\HardwareProfiles\0001\System\CurrentControlSet\Video\AdapterGUID\0000

and renamed the keys for the 2 screens so the external screen is Mon10000001 and the internal screen is Mon1000000

and did that for each hardware profile(unsure why there is 3 but never mind

then rebootted machine with the exteranl display discontected and reconnected when back in windows asnd as soon as i reconnect the display it comes back as the primary and the internal is the seccondery

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I always thought the primary display on a laptop could not be changed to an external display. This is probably set in the OS somewhere, but it could be hard to find... maybe time to a format and reinstall.

What is the graphics chipset, maybe the manufacturer has software that controls it, like the nVidia Control Panel? Under the *Display* menu, there is *set up multiple displays* and there two drop down lists where you can set the primary display to what you want.

What is the graphics chipset, maybe the manufacturer has software that controls it, like the nVidia Control Panel? Under the *Display* menu, there is *set up multiple displays* and there two drop down lists where you can set the primary display to what you want.

Click to expand...

its an ATI mobility 200M chipset. and i cant see any control software on it, i did download the drivers form teh ATI site but they never installed no applications just pure drivers.

and i origionally thaught the same as nigthwalker that there was no way to change the primary display but i have just by closing the lid on teh laptop while logged into windows.

A heavy google session may turn up the answer. Chances are its happened to others before you.

Click to expand...

Looks like what i may have to do, its happened to me before but icant remember how i fixed it. if i cant work it out tonight i will bug the seccond line guys at work and see if they can work it out. even tho some of our idiot customers have told one of them he doesnt know **** and should learn about when hes doing. ( hes the most experianced there and knows a hell of a lot.

Looks like what i may have to do, its happened to me before but icant remember how i fixed it. if i cant work it out tonight i will bug the seccond line guys at work and see if they can work it out. even tho some of our idiot customers have told one of them he doesnt know **** and should learn about when hes doing. ( hes the most experianced there and knows a hell of a lot.

Click to expand...

Customers quite often say stuff like that; who's the one phoning up a national rate line asking for help

If you find the following registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\TMM and then rename the Dword value called UseIViewHelper to UseIViewHelperxxxxx and restart it will recreate the key and hopefully solve the issue.

being vista all the admin type stuff is hidden away and "simplifyed" so its gummied things up and bineg a laptop it was even more squiffy.

if it was an XP machine or a Vista desktop harrys suggestions would have worked.

but i ended up going into the control panel in mobility options adn then clicking connect display which makes it re-detect the external screen then telling it to extend my desktop right and it works and now my internal display is the primary and the external is the seccondary.

oh and the system restore didnt work it just unisntalled the drivers for my mouse.

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